The Seattle area has been inhabited byNative Americans (such as theDuwamish, who had at least 17 villages around Elliot Bay) for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers.[14]Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as theDenny Party, arrived fromIllinois viaPortland, Oregon, on theschoonerExact atAlki Point on November 13, 1851.[15] The settlement was moved to the eastern shore ofElliott Bay in 1852 and named "Seattle" in honor ofChief Seattle, a prominent 19th-century leader of the localDuwamish andSuquamish tribes. Seattle currently has relatively high populations of Native Americans as well as Americans with strong Asian, African, European, and Scandinavian ancestry, and, as of 2015, hosts the fifth-highest percentage of residents who identify asLGBT among major metropolitan areas in the U.S. (4.8 percent).[16]
Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late 19th century the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway toAlaska during theKlondike Gold Rush. The city grew afterWorld War II, partly due to the local companyBoeing, which established Seattle as a center for its manufacturing of aircraft. Beginning in the 1980s, the Seattle area developed into atechnology center;Microsoft established its headquarters in the region.Alaska Airlines is based atSeattle–Tacoma International Airport inSeaTac, Washington. The stream of new software,biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city's population by almost 50,000 in the decade between 1990 and 2000.
In 1851, a large party ofAmerican pioneers led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of theDuwamish River; they formally claimed it on September 14, 1851.[25] Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party.[26] Members of the Denny Party claimed land onAlki Point on September 28, 1851.[27] The rest of the Denny Party set sail on theschoonerExact fromPortland, Oregon, stopping inAstoria, and landed at Alki Point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851.[27] After a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-dayPioneer Square,[27] naming this new settlementDuwamps.[28]
Charles Terry and John Low remained at the original landing location, reestablished their old land claim and called it "New York", but renamed "New York Alki" in April 1853, from aChinook word meaning, roughly, "by and by" or "someday".[29][30] For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers.[31]
The name "Seattle" appears on officialWashington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the village were filed. In 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14, 1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with aboard of trustees managing the city. The Town of Seattle was disincorporated on January 18, 1867, and remained a mere precinct of King County until late 1869, when a new petition was filed and the city was re-incorporated December 2, 1869, with amayor–council government.[27][36] The corporate seal of the City of Seattle carries the date "1869" and a likeness of Chief Seattle in left profile.[37] That same year, Seattle acquired the epithet of the "Queen City", a designation officially changed in 1982 to the "Emerald City".[38]
Seattle has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, like many other cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure.[39]
The first such boom, covering the early years of the city, rode on the lumber industry. During this period the road now known asYesler Way won the nickname "Skid Road", supposedly after the timber skidding down the hill toHenry Yesler's sawmill. The later dereliction of the area may be a possible origin for the term which later entered the wider American lexicon asSkid Row.[40] Like much of theU.S. West, Seattle experienced conflicts between labor and management and ethnic tensions that culminated in theanti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886.[41] This violence originated with unemployed whites who were determined to drive the Chinese from Seattle; anti-Chinese riots also occurred inTacoma.
Seattle had achieved sufficient economic success when theGreat Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed the central business district. However, a far grander city center rapidly emerged in its place.[42] Finance companyWashington Mutual, for example, was founded in the immediate wake of the fire.[43] ThePanic of 1893 hit Seattle hard.[44]
The second and most dramatic boom resulted from theKlondike Gold Rush, which ended the depression that had begun with thePanic of 1893. In a short time, Seattle became a major transportation center. On July 14, 1897, theS.S. Portland docked with its famed "ton of gold", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for the miners inAlaska and theYukon. Few of those working men found lasting wealth. However, it was Seattle's business of clothing the miners and feeding them salmon that panned out in the long run. Along with Seattle, other cities likeEverett,Tacoma,Port Townsend,Bremerton, andOlympia, all in the Puget Sound region, became competitors for exchange, rather thanmother lodes for extraction, of precious metals.[45]
The boom lasted into the early part of the 20th century, and funded many new Seattle companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-oldJames E. Casey borrowed $100 from a friend and founded theAmerican Messenger Company (laterUPS). Other Seattle companies founded during this period includeNordstrom andEddie Bauer.[43] Seattle brought in theOlmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to design a system of parks and boulevards.[46] The Gold Rush era culminated in theAlaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of today'sUniversity of Washington campus.[47]
Ashipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century became massive duringWorld War I, making Seattle somewhat of a company town. The subsequent retrenchment led to theSeattle General Strike of 1919, an earlygeneral strike in the country.[48] A 1912 city development plan byVirgil Bogue went largely unused. Seattle was mildly prosperous in the 1920s but was particularly hard hit in the Great Depression, experiencing some of the country's harshest labor strife in that era. Violence during theMaritime Strike of 1934 cost Seattle much of its maritime traffic, which was rerouted to thePort of Los Angeles.[49]
Seattle was one of the major cities that benefited from programs such as theWorks Progress Administration,CCC,Public Works Administration, and others.[50][51] The workers, mostly men, built roads, parks, dams, schools, railroads, bridges, docks, and even historical and archival record sites and buildings. Seattle faced significant unemployment, loss of lumber and construction industries asLos Angeles prevailed as the biggerWest Coast city. Seattle had building contracts that rivaledNew York City andChicago, but also lost to Los Angeles. Seattle's eastern farm land faded due toOregon's and theMidwest's, forcing people into town.[52][53]
Hooverville arose during the Depression, leading to Seattle's growing homeless population. Stationed outside Seattle, the Hooverville housed thousands of men but very few children and no women. With work projects close to the city, Hooverville grew and the WPA settled into the city.[54]
A movement of women arose from Seattle during theGreat Depression, fueled in part byEleanor Roosevelt's 1933 bookIt's Up to the Women; women pushed for recognition, not just as housewives, but as the backbone to family. Using newspapers and journalsWorking Woman andThe Woman Today, women pushed to be seen as equal and receive some recognition.[55]
The Great Depression did not impact theUniversity of Washington negatively. As schools across Washington lost funding and attendance, the university actually prospered during the time period as they focused on growing their student enrollment. WhileSeattle public schools were influenced by Washington's superintendent Worth McClure,[56] they still struggled to pay teachers and maintain attendance.[57]
Seattle was the home base of impresarioAlexander Pantages who, starting in 1902, opened a number of theaters in the city exhibitingvaudeville acts and silent movies. He went on to become one of America's greatest theater and movie tycoons. Scottish-born architectB. Marcus Priteca designed several theaters for Pantages in Seattle, which were later demolished or converted to other uses. Seattle's survivingParamount Theatre, on which he collaborated, was not a Pantages theater.[58]
War work again brought local prosperity duringWorld War II, centered on the production ofBoeing aircraft. The war dispersed the city's numerous Japanese-American businessmen due to theJapanese American internment. After the World War II, however, the local economy dipped. It rose again with Boeing's growing dominance in the commercialairliner market.[59] Seattle celebrated its restored prosperity and made a bid for world recognition with theCentury 21 Exposition, the1962 World's Fair, for which theSpace Needle was built.[60]
Another major local economic downturn was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a time when Boeing was heavily affected by theoil crises, loss of government contracts, and costs and delays associated with theBoeing 747. Many people left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading "Will the last person leaving Seattle – Turn out the lights."[61]
Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company separated its headquarters from its major production facilities; the headquarters were moved to Chicago.[62] The Seattle area is still home to Boeing'sRenton narrow-body plant andEverett wide-body plant.[63] The company'scredit union for employees,BECU, remains based in the Seattle area and has been open to all residents of Washington since 2002.[64]
The city's firstcoffeehouses were established in the late 1950s and grew over the following decades as espresso was introduced to the American market. On March 30, 1971, thefirst location forStarbucks Coffee opened at Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle. The company initially soldcoffee beans but later expanded into cafes.[67]
Seattle and its suburbs became home to a number of technology companies, includingAmazon,F5 Networks,RealNetworks,Nintendo of America, andT-Mobile.[69] This success brought an influx of new residents with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000,[70] and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country.[71]
Seattle in this period attracted attention as home to the companies opened operations in or around the city. In 1990, theGoodwill Games were held in the city.[72] Three years later, in 1993, theAPEC leaders was hosted in Seattle.[73] The 1990s also witnessed a growing popularity ingrunge music, a sound that was largely developed in Seattle's independent music scene.[74]
In 1993, the movieSleepless in Seattle brought the city further national attention,[75] as did the television sitcomFrasier. Thedot-com boom caused a great frenzy among the technology companies in Seattle but the bubble ended in early 2001.[76][77]
In 1999, theWorld Trade Organization held its conference in Seattle, which was met withprotest activity. The protests and police reactions to them largely overshadowed the conference itself.[78]
Another boom began as the city emerged from theGreat Recession, commencing whenAmazon moved its headquarters from NorthBeacon Hill toSouth Lake Union. The move initiated a historic construction boom which resulted in the completion of almost 10,000 apartments in Seattle in 2017, more than any previous year and nearly twice as many as were built in 2016.[80][81] By 2025, Seattle's new apartments had become the smallest in the U.S., with an average of 649 square feet (60.3 m2) among all unit types.[82]
From 2010 to 2015, Seattle gained an average of 14,511 residents per year, with the growth strongly skewed toward the center of the city,[83] and unemployment dropped from roughly 9 percent to 3.6 percent.[84] The city has found itself "bursting at the seams", with over 45,000 households spending more than half their income on housing andat least 2,800 people homeless, and with the country's sixth-worst rush-hour traffic.[84] In response, manyurbanist measures to improve transit, cycling,[85] and housing affordability were passed by city council, the state, and voters.[86][87] These includeSound Transit 3, Seattle Prop 1A,[88] a "Downtown Activation Plan,"[89] and a new "One Seattle" Comprehensive Plan.[90]
The sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields surrounding Seattle were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentaryhunter-gatherer societies. In modern times the surrounding area lends itself well to sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking year-round.[91][92]
North of the city center, the Lake Washington Ship Canal connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. It incorporates four natural bodies of water:Lake Union,Salmon Bay,Portage Bay, andUnion Bay.[98]
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 142.5 square miles (369 km2),[105] 84 square miles (220 km2) of which is land and 58.1 square miles (150 km2) is water (41% of the total area).[1]
According to theKöppen climate classification system, Seattle has a warm-summerMediterranean climate (Csb),[106][107][108] while under theTrewartha system, it is labeled anoceanic climate (Dobk).[109][110] It has cool, wet winters and mild, relatively dry summers, covering characteristics of both climate types.[111][112] The climate is sometimes characterized as a "modified Mediterranean" climate because it is cooler and wetter than a "true" Mediterranean climate, but shares the characteristic dry summer (which has a strong influence on the region's vegetation).[113]
Temperature extremes are moderated by the adjacentPuget Sound, greaterPacific Ocean, andLake Washington. Thus extremeheat waves are rare in the Seattle area, as are very cold temperatures (below about 15 °F; −9 °C). The Seattle area is the cloudiest region of theContinental United States, due in part to frequent storms andlows moving in from the adjacent Pacific Ocean. Seattle is cloudy 201 days out of the year and partly cloudy 93 days.[114] With many more "rain days" than other major American cities, Seattle has a well-earned reputation for frequent rain:[115] In an average year, there are 150 days in which at least 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) of precipitation falls, more days than in nearly all U.S. cities east of theRocky Mountains.[116] However, because it often has merely a light drizzle falling from the sky for many days, Seattle actually receives significantly less rainfall (or other precipitation) overall than many other major U.S. cities likeNew York City,Miami, orHouston.
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Seattle's population historically has been predominantly white.[126] The 2010 census showed that Seattle was one of the whitest big cities in the country, although its proportion of white residents has been gradually declining.[127] In 1960, whites constituted 91.6% of the city's population,[126] while in 2010 they constituted 69.5%.[128][129] According to the 2006–2008American Community Survey, approximately 78.9% of residents over the age of five spoke only English at home. Those who spokeAsian languages other than Indo-European languages made up 10.2% of the population, Spanish was spoken by 4.5% of the population, speakers of otherIndo-European languages made up 3.9%, and speakers of other languages made up 2.5%.[citation needed]
Ethnic origins in SeattleMap of racial distribution in Seattle, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people:⬤ White⬤ Black⬤ Asian⬤ Hispanic⬤ Other
Seattle's foreign-born population grew 40% between the 1990 and 2000 censuses.[130] TheChinese population in the Seattle area has origins inmainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, andTaiwan. The earliest Chinese-Americans that came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were almost entirely fromGuangdong Province. The Seattle area is also home to a largeVietnamese population of more than 55,000 residents,[131] as well as over 30,000Somali immigrants.[132] The Seattle-Tacoma area is also home to one of the largestCambodian communities in the United States, numbering about 19,000 Cambodian Americans,[133] and one of the largestSamoan communities in the mainland U.S., with over 15,000 people having Samoan ancestry.[128][134] Additionally, the Seattle area had the highest percentage of self-identified mixed-race people of any large metropolitan area in the United States, according to the 2000 United States Census Bureau.[135] According to a 2012HistoryLink study, Seattle's 98118 ZIP code (in the Columbia City neighborhood) was one of the most diverse ZIP Code Tabulation Areas in the United States.[136]
According to the ACS 1-year estimates, in 2018, the median income of a city household was $93,481, and the median income for a family was $130,656.[137] 11.0% of the population and 6.6% of families were below the poverty line. Of people living in poverty, 11.4% were under the age of 18 and 10.9% were 65 or older.[137] According to a 2024 study byHenley & Partners, the city of Seattle has an estimated 54,200 millionaires and 11 billionaires.[138]
It is estimated that King County has 8,000 homeless people on any given night, and many of those live in Seattle.[139] In September 2005, King County adopted a "Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness", one of the near-term results of which is a shift of funding fromhomeless shelter beds to permanent housing.[140]
In recent years, the city has experienced steady population growth, and has been faced with the issue of accommodating more residents. In 2006, after growing by 4,000 citizens per year for the previous 16 years, regional planners expected the population of Seattle to grow by 200,000 people by 2040.[141] However, former mayor Greg Nickels supported plans that would increase the population by 60%, or 350,000 people, by 2040 and worked on ways to accommodate this growth while keeping Seattle's single-family housing zoning laws.[141] The Seattle City Council later voted to relax height limits on buildings in the greater part of Downtown, partly with the aim to increase residential density in the city center.[142] As a sign of increasing downtown core growth, theDowntown population crested to over 60,000 in 2009, up 77% since 1990.[143]
In 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Seattle experienced its first population decline in 50 years.[144] However, this was followed by five straight years of population growth that exceeded 2% per year. According to state estimates, Seattle surpassed 800,000 residents in 2025.[145]
Seattle has a relatively high number of adults living alone. According to the 2000 U.S. Census interim measurements of 2004, Seattle has the fifth highest proportion of single-person households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more residents, at 40.8%.[146]
Seattle has a notably largelesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. According to a 2006 study byUCLA, 12.9% of city residents polled identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. This was the second-highest proportion of any major U.S. city, behindSan Francisco.[147] Greater Seattle also ranked second among major U.S. metropolitan areas, with 6.5% of the population identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.[147] In a more recentGallup poll survey of 2015, Seattle ranked fifth, at 4.8%.[16] According to 2012 estimates from the United States Census Bureau, Seattle has the highest percentage of same-sex households in the United States, at 2.6 percent, surpassing San Francisco (2.5 percent).[148] TheCapitol Hill district has been the center of LGBTQ culture in Seattle[149] since the 1970s. Before then, thePioneer Square district was the city's hub of LGBTQ community.[150]
Economy
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Washington Mutual's last headquarters, the WaMu Center, now theRussell Investments Center, (center left), and its prior headquarters, Washington Mutual Tower, now the1201 Third Avenue TowerThe corporate headquarters of online retailerAmazon, named Day 1 and located in Denny Triangle
Seattle's economy is driven by a mix of older industrial companies and new-economy internet and technology companies, as well as service, design, andclean technology companies. The city's gross metropolitan product (GMP) was $231 billion in 2010, making it the11th-largest metropolitan economy in the United States.[151][152] ThePort of Seattle, which also operatesSeattle–Tacoma International Airport, is a major gateway for trade with Asia and cruises to Alaska. It also is the 8th-largest port in the United States when measured by container capacity. Its maritime cargo operations merged with thePort of Tacoma in 2015 to form theNorthwest Seaport Alliance.[153][154]
Although it was impacted by theGreat Recession, Seattle has retained a comparatively strong economy, and is noted for start-up businesses, especially in green building and clean technologies.[155] In February 2010, the city government committed Seattle to become North America's first "climate neutral" city, with a goal of reaching net-zero per-capita greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.[156]
Large companies continue to dominate the business landscape. Seven companies onFortune 500's 2022 list of the United States' largest companies (based on total revenue) are headquartered in Seattle: Internet retailerAmazon (#2), coffee chainStarbucks (#120), freight forwarderExpeditors International of Washington (#225), department storeNordstrom (#245), forest products companyWeyerhaeuser (#354), online travel companyExpedia Group (#404), and real-estate tech companyZillow (#424) .[157] Other Fortune 500 companies commonly associated with Seattle are based in nearby Puget Sound cities. Warehouse club chainCostco (#11), the largest retail company in Washington, is based inIssaquah.Microsoft (#14) is located inRedmond. Furthermore, Bellevue is home to truck manufacturerPaccar (#151).[157] Other major companies headquartered in the area includeNintendo of America in Redmond,T-Mobile US in Bellevue, andProvidence Health & Services (the state's largest health care system and fifth-largest employer) inRenton. The city has a reputation for heavycoffee consumption;[158] coffee companies founded or based in Seattle include Starbucks,[159]Seattle's Best Coffee,[160] andTully's.[161] There are also many successful independent artisanal espresso roasters and cafés.[158][needs update]
Before moving its headquarters toChicago and then ultimatelyArlington County, Virginia, aerospace manufacturerBoeing (#60) was the largest company based in Seattle. Its largest division,Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is still headquartered within the Puget Sound region.[162][e] The company also has large aircraft manufacturing plants in Everett and Renton; it remains the largest private employer in the Seattle metropolitan area.[163] In 2006 former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced a desire to spark a new economic boom driven by thebiotechnology industry. Major redevelopment of theSouth Lake Union neighborhood is underway in an effort to attract new and established biotech companies to the city, joining biotech companiesCorixa (acquired byGlaxoSmithKline), Immunex (now part of Amgen),Trubion, and ZymoGenetics.Vulcan Inc., the holding company of billionairePaul Allen, is behind most of the development projects in the region. While some see the new development as an economic boon, others have criticized Nickels and theSeattle City Council for pandering to Allen's interests at taxpayers' expense.[164] In 2005,Forbes ranked Seattle as the most expensive American city for buying a house based on the local income levels.[165] Owing largely to the rapidly increasing cost of living, Seattle and Washington State have some of thehighest minimum wages in the country, at $15 per hour for smaller businesses and $16 for the city's largest employers.[166]
The5th Avenue Theatre, built in 1926, stagesBroadway-style musical shows[178] featuring both local talent and international stars.[179] Seattle has "around 100" theatrical production companies[180] and over two dozen live theatre venues, many of them associated withfringe theatre;[181][182] Seattle is probably second only to New York for number ofequity theaters[183] (28 Seattle theater companies have some sort ofActors' Equity contract).[180]In addition, the 900-seatRomanesque RevivalTown Hall on First Hill hosts numerous cultural events, especially lectures and recitals.[184]
Between 1918 and 1951, there were nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs along Jackson Street, running from the current Chinatown/International District to the Central District. The jazz scene developed the early careers ofRay Charles,Quincy Jones,Bumps Blackwell,Ernestine Anderson, and others.[185]
Seattle annually sends a team ofspoken word slammers to theNational Poetry Slam and considers itself home to such performance poets asBuddy Wakefield, two-timeIndividual World Poetry Slam Champ;[187]Anis Mojgani, two-time National Poetry Slam Champ;[188] andDanny Sherrard, 2007 National Poetry Slam Champ and 2008 Individual World Poetry Slam Champ.[189] Seattle also hosted the 2001 national Poetry Slam Tournament. The Seattle Poetry Festival is a biennial poetry festival that (launched first as the Poetry Circus in 1997) has featured local, regional, national, and international names in poetry.[190]
TheSeattle Great Wheel, one of the largestFerris wheels in the US, opened in June 2012 as a new, permanent attraction on the city's waterfront, atPier 57, next toDowntown Seattle.[213] TheSeattle Aquarium opened on the downtown waterfront in 1977 and was expanded in 2007 with an auditorium, gift shop, and cafe alongside new exhibit spaces. A new, three-story building under theOverlook Walk opened in 2024 with tropical exhibits and a 500,000-US-gallon (1,900,000 L) tank with sharks and rays from theCoral Triangle region of Southeast Asia.[214][215]
Woodland Park Zoo opened as a privatemenagerie in 1889 but was sold to the city in 1899.[216] The city also has manycommunity centers for recreation, including Rainier Beach, Van Asselt, Rainier, and Jefferson south of the Ship Canal and Green Lake, Laurelhurst, Loyal Heights north of the Canal, and Meadowbrook.[217] TheSeattle Underground Tour is an exhibit of places that existed before the Great Fire and subsequent rebuilding of modern-day Pioneer Square, which raised the street level.[218]
Since the mid-1990s, Seattle has experienced significant growth in the cruise industry, especially as a departure point for Alaska cruises. In 2023, a record total of 907,572 cruise passengers passed through the city, surpassing the number for Vancouver, BC, the other major departure point for Alaska cruises.[219] New tourist industries, such as guided tours andamphibious tours also emerged during the 1990s.[220]
TheSeattle Public Library system consists of 27 branches with a combined total of 3,119,298 items as of 2023[update].[221] The library was founded as part of the city government in 1890, though previous efforts to establish one date back to 1868; it first opened in 1891 and moved into a permanent location, amansion once owned by Seattle pioneerHenry Yesler, in 1899.[222] The mansion burned down in 1901 along with most of the 33,000 books then in the library's collection, resulting in the construction of aCarnegie library building in 1906; eventually known as theSeattle Central Library, the building was replaced in 1960 with anInternational Style design and again in 2004 with a design by Dutch architectRem Koolhaas.[222][223]
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A 2024 Household Pulse Survey from the United States Census Bureau estimated that 64 percent of adults in the Seattle area never attend religious services or attend less than once a year, the highest percentage among large U.S. metropolitan areas.[224]
A Originally founded in 1974, the MLS version of the Sounders franchise was legally re-incorporated in 2007 and entered the league for the 2009 season.
The Mariners began play in 1977 at themulti-purposeKingdome, where the team struggled for most of its time. Relative success in the mid-to-late 1990s saved the team from being relocated and allowed them to move to a purpose-built baseball stadium,T-Mobile Park (formerlySafeco Field), in 1999.[239][240] The Mariners have never reached aWorld Series and only appeared in the MLB playoffs five times, mostly between 1995 and 2001, but had Hall of Fame players and candidates likeKen Griffey Jr.,Randy Johnson,Ichiro Suzuki, andAlex Rodriguez.[241] The team tied the all-time MLB single regular season wins record in 2001 with 116 wins.[242] From 2001 to 2022, the Mariners failed to qualify for the playoffs—the longestactive postseason drought in major North American sports, at 20 seasons.[243]
Seattle Sounders FC has played in Major League Soccer since 2009, as the latest continuation of theoriginal 1974 Sounders team of theNorth American Soccer League afteran incarnation in thelower divisions of American soccer.[246] Sharing Lumen Field with the Seahawks, the team set variousattendance records in its first few MLS seasons, averaging over 43,000 per match and placing themselves among the top 30 teams internationally.[247][248] The Sounders have won theMLS Supporters' Shield in 2014[249] and theU.S. Open Cup on four occasions:2009,2010,2011, and2014.[250] The Sounders won the first of their twoMLS Cup titles in2016, defeatingToronto FC 5–4 in apenalty shootout in Toronto,[251] before finishing as runners-up in a rematch against Toronto inMLS Cup 2017.In2019 the Sounders made their first-ever home-field appearance in MLS Cup, once again against Toronto FC, and won the game 3–1 to earn their second MLS Cup title in front of a club-record attendance of 69,274.[252] The stadium also hosted the second leg of the2022 CONCACAF Champions League Final, played in front of 68,741 to break the tournament attendance record. The Sounders became the first MLS team to win a continental title since 2000 and the first to win the modernChampions League.[253]
Seattle has also been home to various minor-league professional teams, of which currentlyBallard FC andWest Seattle Junction FC ofUSL League 2 in soccer remain. Representing the Seattle neighborhood ofBallard, Ballard FC was founded in 2022 as an independent, semi-professional soccer team in the fourth-divisionUSL League 2. The team is owned by a group led by former Sounders playerLamar Neagle and wonits first national title in 2023. Ballard FC's primary home is the 1,000-seat Interbay Soccer Stadium (also home toSeattle Pacific University's andBallard High School's soccer teams), but during that field's renovations in the 2024 season, Ballard will play out of Memorial Stadium at the Seattle Center.[273][274]West Seattle Junction FC, representing the neighborhood ofWest Seattle, joined USL League 2 during the 2024 season.[235]
The short-livedSeattle Sea Dragons, originally the Dragons, of theXFL played at Lumen Field in the league's inaugural season in 2020 prior to its suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[275] The Sea Dragons returned alongside the XFL in2023 after the league's re-launch under new ownership.[276] The team folded prior to the 2024 season during the XFL's merger with theUnited States Football League to form theUnited Football League.[277]
Seattle also boasts two collegiate sports teams based at theUniversity of Washington andSeattle University, both competing inNCAA Division I for various sports.[278] The University of Washington's athletic program, nicknamed theHuskies, competes in theBig Ten Conference, and Seattle University's athletic program, nicknamed theRedhawks, mostly competes in theWestern Athletic Conference. The Huskies teams use several facilities, including the 70,000-seatHusky Stadium forfootball and theHec Edmundson Pavilion for basketball and volleyball.[279][280] The two schools have basketball and soccer teams that compete against each other in non-conference games and have formed a local rivalry due to their sporting success.[278]
Seattle's mild, temperate marine climate allows year-round outdoor recreation, including walking, cycling, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, rock climbing, motorboating, sailing, team sports, and swimming.[285] Thecity parks system encompasses 485 parks, shorelines, and preserved spaces that total 6,500 acres (2,600 ha)—12 percent of the land area of Seattle. These city-owned facilities include 25 miles (40 km) of boulevards and 120 miles (190 km) of walking and hiking trails, athletic fields, swimming pools, community centers, bathhouses, and performance spaces.[286] TheTrust for Public Land ranked Seattle eighth in the United States among municipal parks systems in 2023 and estimates that 99 percent of residents live within a1⁄2-mile (0.8 km) of a park.[287]
Seattle has a network of recreational and commuting trails for cyclists and pedestrians, mainly repurposed from disused railroads or built alongside regional highways. TheBurke–Gilman Trail, which travels for 27 miles (43 km) along the Ship Canal and Lake Washington between Ballard andBothell, first opened in 1978 on a former railroad.[291] TheMountains to Sound Trail connects the Interstate 90 corridor, including the north side of theHomer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge, and is planned to be extended to Snoqualmie.[292] Other non-motorized paths include theOverlook Walk, which opened in 2024 to connect Pike Place Market to the downtown waterfront via a set of overpasses that integrate with an expansion of the Seattle Aquarium.[293] Also popular among Seattle residents are hikes and skiing in the nearby Cascade or Olympic Mountains and kayaking and sailing in the region's waterways.[294][better source needed]
Seattle City Council consists of two at-large positions and seven district seats representing the areas shown from 2016 to 2023.
Seattle is acharter city, with amayor–council form of government. From 1911 to 2013, Seattle's nine city councillors were elected at large, rather than by geographic subdivisions.[295] For the 2015 election, this changed to a hybrid system of seven district members and two at-large members as a result of a ballot measure passed on November 5, 2013. The only other elected offices are thecity attorney and Municipal Court judges. All city offices are officiallynon-partisan.[296] Like some other parts of the United States, government and laws are also run by a series of ballot initiatives (allowing citizens to pass or reject laws), referendums (allowing citizens to approve or reject legislation already passed), and propositions (allowing specific government agencies to propose new laws or tax increases directly to the people).[297]
Seattle is widely considered one of the most socially liberal cities in the United States.[298] In the 2012 U.S. general election, a majority of Seattleites voted to approve Referendum 74 and legalize gay marriage in Washington state.[299] In the same election, an overwhelming majority of Seattleites also voted to approve the legalization of the recreational use ofcannabis in the state.[300] Like much of thePacific Northwest (which has the lowest rate ofchurch attendance in the United States and consistently reports the highest percentage ofatheism[301][302]), church attendance, religious belief, and political influence of religious leaders are much lower than in other parts of America.[303] Seattle's political culture is very liberal andprogressive for the United States, with over 80% of the population voting for theDemocratic Party. All precincts in Seattle voted for Democratic Party candidateBarack Obama in the2012 presidential election.[304] In partisan elections for theWashington State Legislature andUnited States Congress, nearly all elections are won by Democrats. Although local elections are nonpartisan, most of the city's elected officials are known to be Democrats, the most notable exception beingSeattle City AttorneyAnn Davison.[citation needed]
In 1926, Seattle became the first major American city to elect a female mayor,Bertha Knight Landes.[305] It has also elected an openly gay mayor,Ed Murray,[306] and a third-party socialist councillor,Kshama Sawant.[307] For the first time in United States history, an openly gay black woman was elected to public office when Sherry Harris was elected as a Seattle city councilor in 1991.[308][309] In 2015, the majority of the city council was female.[310]
In 2023, the city council voted to bancaste discrimination as part of the city's anti-discrimination laws. The ban is the first in the United States.[311]
Seattle lies within four districts on theKing County Council: the 1st district includes the northeastern corner of the city; the 2nd district generally covers areas east ofInterstate 5 and south of Northeast 65th Street; the 4th district consists of the northwestern neighborhoods of Ballard, Fremont, Magnolia, and Queen Anne; and the 8th district includes Downtown Seattle, First Hill, SODO, and West Seattle.[312] At the state level, Seattle is divided into six districts that each have onestate senator and twostate representatives.[313][314]
Federally, Seattle is split between two congressional districts. Most of the city is in7th congressional district,[315] represented by DemocratPramila Jayapal, the first Indian-American woman elected to Congress. She succeeded 28-year incumbent and fellow DemocratJim McDermott.[316] Part of southeastern Seattle is in the9th congressional district,[315] represented by DemocratAdam Smith since 1997.[317] The border between the two districts follows the Tukwila city limits around Boeing Field, Interstate 5, South Dearborn Street, 4th Avenue South, James Street, Madison Street, East Union Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and East Yesler Way.[315]
This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(April 2021)
Of the city's population over the age of 25, 53.8% (vs. a national average of 27.4%) hold abachelor's degree or higher, and 91.9% (vs. 84.5% nationally) have a high school diploma orequivalent. A 2008 United States Census Bureau survey showed that Seattle had the highest percentage of college and university graduates of any major U.S. city.[318] The city was listed as the most literate of the country's 69 largest cities in 2005 and 2006, the second most literate in 2007 and the most literate in 2008 in studies conducted byCentral Connecticut State University.[319]
Seattle Public Schools is the school district for the vast majority of the city.[320] The school district desegregated without a court order[321] but still struggles to achieve racial balance in a somewhat ethnically divided city (the south part of town having more ethnic minorities than the north).[322] In 2007, Seattle's racial tie-breaking system was struck down by theUnited States Supreme Court, but the ruling left the door open for desegregation formulae based on other indicators (e.g., income or socioeconomic class).[323] A small portion of the city'sDelridge neighborhood lies within the boundaries of theHighline School District.[320]
The public school system is supplemented by a moderate number of private schools: Five of the private high schools areCatholic, one isLutheran, and six aresecular.[324]
Seattle is also well served by television and radio, with all major U.S. networks represented, along with at least five other English-language stations and two Spanish-language stations.[333] Seattle cable viewers also receiveCBUT 2 (CBC) fromVancouver, British Columbia.[citation needed]
The University of Washington is consistently ranked among the country's leading institutions in medical research, earning special merits for programs in neurology and neurosurgery. The university-runUW Medicine system encompasses several major local hospitals, includingHarborview Medical Center, the public county hospital and the only Level Itrauma hospital for Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.[336] Harborview and two other major hospitals—Virginia Mason Medical Center andSwedish Medical Center—are located on First Hill, which is nicknamed "Pill Hill" for its concentration of medical facilities.[337]
Seattle has seen local developments of modern paramedic services with the establishment ofMedic One in 1970.[339] In 1974, a60 Minutes story on the success of the then four-year-old Medic One paramedic system called Seattle "the best place in the world to have a heart attack."[340] The city also has severalpharmacy chains; these includeWalgreens, and formerlyBartell Drugs, which was family-run in Seattle until its acquisition byRite Aid in 2020 and then closed in 2025.[341][342] As of 2024[update], Seattle lacks a 24-hour retail pharmacy due to the closure of locations across several chains.[343][344]
Thefirst streetcars appeared in 1889 and were instrumental in the creation of a relatively well-defined downtown and strong neighborhoods at the end of their lines. The advent of the automobile began the dismantling of rail in Seattle. Tacoma–Seattle railway service ended in 1929 and the Everett–Seattle service came to an end in 1939, replaced by automobiles running on the recently developed highway system. Rails on city streets were paved over or removed, and the opening of theSeattle trolleybus system brought the end ofstreetcars in Seattle in 1941. This left an extensive network of privately owned buses (later public) as the only mass transit within the city and throughout the region.[345]
According to the 2007American Community Survey, 18.6% of Seattle residents used one of the three public transit systems that serve the city, giving it the highest transit ridership of all major cities without heavy or light rail prior to the completion of Sound Transit's 1 Line.[351] The city has also been described byBert Sperling as the fourth most walkable U.S. city and byWalk Score as the sixth most walkable of the fifty largest U.S. cities.[352][353]
Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, locally known as Sea-Tac Airport and located just south in the neighboring city of SeaTac, is operated by the Port of Seattle and provides commercial air service to destinations throughout the world. Closer to downtown,Boeing Field is used for general aviation, cargo flights, and testing/delivery of Boeing airliners. A secondary passenger airport,Paine Field, opened in 2019 and is located inEverett, 25 miles (40 km) north of Seattle. It is predominantly used by Boeing and theirlarge assembly plant located nearby.[354][355]
The main mode of transportation, however, is the street system, which is laid out in acardinal directionsgrid pattern, except in the central business district where early city leadersArthur Denny andCarson Boren insisted on orienting the plats relative to the shoreline rather than to true north.[356] The city's topography, formed by the recession of glaciers, created north–south troughs that did not allow east–west streets to be continuous;[357] onlyMadison Street runs uninterrupted from Elliott Bay to Lake Washington.[358] Only two roads,Interstate 5 andState Route 99 (both limited-access highways) run uninterrupted through the city from north to south. From 1953 to 2019, State Route 99 ran through downtown Seattle on theAlaskan Way Viaduct, an elevated freeway on the waterfront. However, due to damage sustained during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake the viaduct was replaced by a tunnel. The 2-mile (3.2 km)Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel was originally scheduled to be completed in December 2015 at a cost of US$4.25 billion. The world's largesttunnel boring machine, named "Bertha", was commissioned for the project, measuring 57 feet (17 m) in diameter. The tunnel's opening was delayed to February 2019 due to issues with the machine, which included a two-year halt in excavation.[359] Seattle has the 8th-worst traffic congestion of all American cities, and ranks 10th among all North American cities according toInrix.[360]
The city has started moving away from the automobile and toward mass transit. From 2004 to 2009, the annual number of unlinked public transportation trips increased by approximately 21%.[361] In 2006, voters in King County passed the Transit Now proposition, which increased bus service hours on high ridership routes and paid for fivelimited-stop bus lines calledRapidRide.[362] After rejecting aroads and transit measure in 2007, Seattle-area voters passed a transit only measure in 2008 to increase ST Express bus service, extend theLink light rail system, and expand and improveSounder commuter rail service.[363]
ALink light rail line (now the1 Line) from downtown heading south to Sea-Tac Airport began service in 2009, giving the city its first rapid transit line with intermediate stations within the city limits. The line was first extended north to theUniversity of Washington in March 2016,[364] followed byNorthgate in October 2021,[365] andLynnwood in August 2024.[366] A second line, the2 Line opened in April 2024 betweenBellevue andRedmond; it is planned to be extended into Seattle via the Interstate 90 floating bridge in late 2025.[367] Voters in the Puget Sound region approved an additional tax increase, part of theSound Transit 3 package, in November 2016 to expand light rail to West Seattle and Ballard as well as Tacoma, Everett, and Issaquah.[368]
Seattle has scooter andbicycle-sharing systems operated by private companies (Bird andLime) who cooperate with the city government.[369] A docked bikeshare system,Pronto Cycle Share, debuted in 2014 but was shut down in 2017 due to low ridership numbers.[370] Later that year, the city government allowed privately operateddockless bicycles to operate within Seattle as a pilot.[371] It was later made a permanent program with several competing companies; one used bikes withgears specifically chosen forSeattle's hilly terrain.[85] Later developments included using exclusivelye-bikes ande-scooters.[citation needed] A city-operated site tracks ridership.[f] In 2024, a total of 6.3 million trips on bikeshare and scootershare systems were taken in Seattle; there were also 163 serious injuries that year involving bikes and scooters.[373]
As of 2023, at least 88% of Seattle's electricity is produced usinghydropower, with less than 40% of thehydroelectricity acquired via theBonneville Power Administration. The remaining known electricity sources consist ofwind power,nuclear power, andbiogas; less than 2% comes from an unidentified source.[383] Seattle Public Utilities manages twotap water supply systems on theCedar River andTolt River.[384] These systems are fed by meltedsnowpack in the Cascade Mountains over the autumn and winter that fill reservoirs as they melt.[385] The city'swastewater system includes 1,422 miles (2,288 km) of sewers that reachtreatment plants that discharge into Puget Sound; a 485-mile (781 km) network of separate tunnels forstormwater serve other treatment facilities.[386] Older areas of the city have acombined sewer system that dumps stormwater and untreated wastewater into Puget Sound during overflow events.[387]
Crime
2023 map of crimes committed in Seattle in each neighborhood
In 2023, Seattle had 5,000 violentcrimes, and from 2013 to 2018 there was a slow increase in crimes, however it dipped in 2020, before spiking up again in 2021 and 2022. As of 2023 the city has a violent crime rate of 683 per 100,000 people, and 5,174 property crimes per 100,000 people.[388]
Overall crimes per capita in Seattle decreased slightly during the beginning of the 21st century. While the total number of crimes rose, the population of the city[389] grew faster. For the data below, per-capita estimates yield the following: 6744 crimes per 100,000 people for the period of 2008–2009, 6725 crimes per 100,000 people for the period of 2010–2019, and 6325 crimes per 100,000 people for the period of 2020–2024.[g] These percentages are overestimates due to the sample rate of the census: city crime statistics are updated yearly, but city population figures are only updated once per decade.
^November 13, 1851, is often referred to as the unofficial date of Seattle's founding, when much of theDenny Party arrived atAlki Point. However, the first White settlers to inhabit the area had already arrived in September, which included some scouts of the Denny clan. The modern city did not take shape until the following spring after much of the party abandoned Alki to move acrossthe bay. The name "Seattle" didn't become official until May 23, 1853.
^Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
^Official records are restricted to SeaTac Airport from January 1945 onward.[117]
^The division currently rotates its headquarters between sites within the region; the previous one inRenton was put up for sale in April 2021.
^The micromobility vendors are required to share ride date with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). This data is aggregated into a dashboard which provides data about trips, deployment, equity area deployment, relative ridership heat maps, and unique ridership.[372]
^These figures are not an accurate reflection of the actual rate of criminality; repeat offenders will further reduce these rates.
^Speidel, William C. (1967).Sons of the Profits or There's No Business Like Grow Business The Seattle Story 1851–1901. Nettle Creek. pp. 12–13.ISBN9780914890065.At the time, the Schooner "Exact" was outfitting in Portland for a voyage to Queen Charlotte Island with gold prospectors, and for a reasonable price the captain was willing to touch at Puget Sound en route. She started from Portland on November 5, 1851 and headed out over the Columbia River Bar after touching at Astoria two days later.
^"The people and their land".Puget Sound Native Art and Culture. Seattle Art Museum. July 4, 2003. Archived fromthe original on June 13, 2010. RetrievedApril 21, 2006. (Publication date per "Native Art of the Northwest Coast: Collection Insight")
^Thomas R. Speer, ed. (July 22, 2004)."Chief Si'ahl and His Family". Duwamish Tribe. Archived fromthe original on February 13, 2009. RetrievedOctober 14, 2007. Includes bibliography.
^Kenneth G. Watson (January 18, 2003)."Seattle, Chief Noah". HistoryLink.Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. RetrievedOctober 14, 2007.
^Murray Morgan (1982) [First published 1951, 1982 revised and updated, first illustrated edition].Skid Road: an Informal Portrait of Seattle. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. p. 20.ISBN978-0-295-95846-0.
^Emmett Shear (Spring 2002). "Seattle: Booms and Busts".Yale University. Author has granted blanket permission for material from that paper to be reused in Wikipedia. Now ats:Seattle: Booms and Busts.
^Junius Rochester (October 7, 1998)."Yesler, Henry L." HistoryLink.Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. RetrievedOctober 1, 2007.
^Greg Lange (June 8, 1999)."Billboard appears on April 16, 1971, near Sea–Tac, reading: Will the Last Person Leaving Seattle—Turn Out the Lights". HistoryLink.Archived from the original on July 18, 2016. RetrievedOctober 1, 2007.The real estate agents were Bob McDonald and Jim Youngren, as cited at Don Duncan,Washington: the First One Hundred Years, 1889–1989 (Seattle: The Seattle Times, 1989), 108, 109–110;The Seattle Times, February 25, 1986, p. A3; Ronald R. Boyce,Seattle–Tacoma and the Southern Sound (Bozeman, Montana: Northwest Panorama Publishing, 1986), 99; Walt Crowley,Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle (Seattle:University of Washington Press, 1995), 297.
^Basnet, Neetish (October 14, 2022)."Largest Tech Employers".Puget Sound Business Journal.Archived from the original on January 11, 2023. RetrievedDecember 11, 2022.
^David M. Ewalt (January 27, 2005)."The Bubble Bowl".Forbes. Archived fromthe original on March 3, 2016. RetrievedOctober 4, 2007. Ewalt refers to the advertising onSuper Bowl XXXIV (January 2000) as "the dot-com bubble's Waterloo".
^Howard Morphy (1999). "Traditional and modern visual art of hunting and gathering peoples". In Richard B. Lee (ed.).The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. Cambridge University Press. p. 443.ISBN978-0-521-57109-8.
^"3 Concept and classification".Global ecological zoning for the global forest resources assessment 2000. Rome: UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Forestry Department. 2001.Archived from the original on July 21, 2010. RetrievedDecember 30, 2011.
^"Gross Metropolitan Product". U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. September 29, 2011.Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. RetrievedOctober 13, 2011.
^abBrendan Kiley (January 31, 2008)."Old Timers, New Theater". The Stranger. p. 27.Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. RetrievedJanuary 9, 2009. "around 100 theater companies ... Twenty-eight have some sort ofActors' Equity contract ..."
^"Theater Calendar". The Stranger. October 18, 2007. p. 45. This lists 23 distinct venues in Seattle hosting live theater (in the narrow sense) that week; it also lists 7 other venues hostingburlesque orcabaret, and three hostingimprov. In any given week, some theaters are "dark".
^"Home page". The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair & Book Arts Show.Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. RetrievedOctober 26, 2007.
^"Sakura-Con English-language site". Asia Northwest Cultural Education Association.Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. RetrievedOctober 25, 2007. Relevant information is on "Location" and "History" pages.
^McRoberts, Patrick; Caldbick, John (November 5, 2014)."Seattle Aquarium".HistoryLink.Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. RetrievedNovember 10, 2024.
^Ouchi, Monica Soto (May 24, 2004). "Looking up – and all around on Central Library's first day: Thousands book the initial due date at new building".The Seattle Times. p. B1.
^"Religious Landscape Study".Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project.Archived from the original on November 9, 2015. RetrievedNovember 10, 2015.
^Williams, Allison; Cheek, Lawrence (May 19, 2023)."The Best Parks in Seattle".Seattle Met.Archived from the original on June 21, 2023. RetrievedNovember 20, 2024.
^Tisa M. Anders (March 29, 2013)."Harris, Sherry D. (1957– )". BlackPast.org.Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. RetrievedNovember 14, 2015.
^Public Transportation Fact Book(PDF) (57th ed.). American Public Transportation Association. April 2006. p. 14. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on September 10, 2012. RetrievedAugust 25, 2012. Public Transportation Fact Book(PDF) (62nd ed.). American Public Transportation Association. April 2011. p. 9. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on September 13, 2012. RetrievedAugust 25, 2012.
^"Transit Now". King County Department of Transportation. Archived fromthe original on December 30, 2011. RetrievedDecember 30, 2011.
Morgan, Murray (1982) [1951].Skid Road: an Informal Portrait of Seattle (revised and updated, first illustrated ed.). Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.ISBN978-0-295-95846-0.
Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. (1998) [1994].Shaping Seattle Architecture: A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.ISBN978-0-295-97366-1.
Klingle, Matthew (2007).Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle. New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN978-0-300-11641-0.
MacGibbon, Elma (1904)."Seattle, the city of destiny"(DJVU).Leaves of knowledge. Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection. Shaw & Borden.OCLC61326250.
Pierce, J. Kingston (2003).Eccentric Seattle: Pillars and Pariahs Who Made the City Not Such a Boring Place After All. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press.ISBN978-0-87422-269-2.
Sanders, Jeffrey Craig.Seattle and the Roots of Urban Sustainability: Inventing Ecotopia (University of Pittsburgh Press; 2010) 288 pages; the rise of environmental activism